Soccer: Alan Pardew cannot wait for the highlights reel of Newcastle's season, regardless of whether they finish in the top four or not. Papiss Cisse's breathtaking brace kept them in the hunt for the Champions League last night when a 2-0 win at Chelsea kept them level with fourth-placed Tottenham.
It also moved them to within a point of Arsenal and dealt a big blow to their opponents' top-four hopes, with the Blues now four points adrift with just two matches to play.
Newcastle have not qualified for the Champions League since 2002 and few would have predicted they would do so at the start of this season but manager Pardew would now not be content with anything less.
"It's not often in a professional career that you get an opportunity to actually break into the top four in this country," he said. "We've been in and around it all year, we've touched fourth place and touched third a couple of times.
"We're going to give it everything. If we miss out, it'll still have been a phenomenal season and I'm looking forward to the highlights video because some of the goals have been unbelievable, they really have."
Cisse's first goal was outstanding but football fans around the world will be watching his second for years, such was the jaw-dropping nature of the strike.
The 26-year-old's 25-yard banana shot with the outside of his right foot brought back memories of Roberto Carlos' free-kick for Brazil against France 15 years ago.
Pardew said: "An astonishing goal. Cisse took a chance. You could see he meant it and he's hit it absolutely true."
Senegal star Cisse told Sky Sports News in an interview translated by strike partner Demba Ba that he went for goal because he was so tired.
He said: "I just saw the ball coming back from Shola (Ameobi) and I just wanted to shoot as I had no power, so I just shot."
Pardew declared Cheik Tiote would be fit for Sunday's final home game with title-chasing Manchester City despite the midfielder suffering a head injury.
He added: "A team challenging for the title, a team challenging for the Champions League. If someone had said that to us at the start of the season, we probably wouldn't have believed them."
If two of Newcastle, Tottenham and Arsenal win this weekend, Chelsea's top-four bid will be over, leaving them having to win this month's Champions League final to qualify for next year's competition.
Caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo refused to concede fourth place but there is now a very real prospect of the Blues failing to reach Europe's premier club competition for the first time since being bought by Roman Abramovich.
Di Matteo was confident his players would shake off last night's defeat in time for Saturday's FA Cup final.
"We're going to pick everybody up and get them going again and focused for Saturday," he said.
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